Weighted voting at the UN has been suggested for various reasons: (1) to overcome the problems of the mini-states now being admitted, with one vote just as the very large states have; (2) to prevent voting in the General Assembly from swinging any further in the anti-West, anti-Israel direction; (3) to satisfy the requirements of democratic justice: i.e., “one person-one vote,” not “one nation-one vote”; and, (4) to reflect more realistically the distribution of power among nations.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is the major technical assistance fund in the UN family of institutions. By purchasing goods and services, it affects developed and developing states alike. As well as distributing assistance, UNDP attempts to stimulate follow-up investment and procures goods and services from member states. UNDP project expenditures are correlated with public and private follow-up investment, but the relationship is rather weak. On the procurement side, developed states receive subcontracts, equipment orders, and fellowship students in direct relationship to their contributions to UNDP, and developing states attract employment possibilities for their nationals as UNDP experts in direct relationship to their contributions. Developed states receive the largest returns from UNDP procurement. Providing multilateral assistance is UNDP's primary activity, but the purchase of equipment, the generation of investment opportunities, and the employment of experts provide economic incentives for both developing and developed states.

The following summary covers the activities of the Security Council from its 783d meeting on August 20, 1957, through its 790th meeting on September 9, 1957.

The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 55th session in Paris, from November 23, 1959, to December 5, 1959. Under the heading, Execution of the Program, the Board decided, inter alia: 1) to approve the list of invitations to the 23d International Conference on Public Education; 2) to authorize the Director-General to convene, in 1960, a meeting of representatives to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, if hedeemed it appropriate to do so; 3) to invite member states to submit names of great personalities and to call attention to historic events in the field of education, science, and culture which they planned to commemorate, in conformity with a decision adopted at its previous session; 4) to extend assistance to the governments of the United Arab Republic and the Sudan to obtain, through the Organization, largescale international assistance for safeguarding the monuments of Nubia which were in danger of disappearing, and, further, to authorize the Secretary-General, among other things, to set up an international committee to assist him in the organization of a world-wide campaign designed to secure contributions for whatever international action was to be undertaken; 5) to approve the list of invitations to the 1960 World Conference on Adult Education; and 6) to recommend to the General Conference the inclusion among the activities to be carried out in the 1961–1962 period of an international conference to study ways of improving international transmission of news, to be convened in Havana, Cuba.

Traditionally relations between nations, including Canada and the United States, have been analyzed in terms of the interaction between the executive branches of the two governments. This approach used to reflect relatively accurately the actual state of affairs. It is still broadly consistent with the constitutional allocation of powers, particularly in Canada. While the president of the United States must seek congressional action in order to declare war and Senate action to ratify treaties and to confirm ambassadorial appointments, these powers in Canada fall within the prerogatives of the crown, and constitutionally no parliamentary approval for decisions by the executive branch in any of these areas is required.

In January 1974 the Council of Ministers of the European Community issued a resolution calling for the coordination of the science and technology policies of the member countries. This initiative came after several years of largely unrewarded efforts by the European institutions to bring a measure of Community-wide coherence in national R&D programs and objectives. Despite the development of alternative decision-making and implementation procedures, the Community's impact on national activities was on the whole limited in scope, confined to programs of marginal importance and more concerned with the joint execution of specific research tasks than with the political motives and intentions of the member governments. A review of the 1974 resolution's effects, principally through the work of the CREST committee, demonstrates that the multiple obstacles to policy coordination have yet to be overcome. These obstacles stem from a) varying conceptions of the policy coordination task, b) the discrepancies and inadequacies in national science policy formulation, c) deficiencies in the perspectives and procedures of Commission officials and national delegations, and d) a variety of constraints which restrict the domain of possible Community intervention.

The Security Council at its 1027th to 1033rd meetings, April 17–24, 1963, considered this question, which was brought to the attention of the Council in a letter dated April 10, 1963, from the Chargé d'Affaires of the permanent mission of Senegal, addressed to the President of the Security Council. The government of Senegal called upon the Security Council to discuss the violations of Senegalese air space and territory on the border between Senegal and Portuguese Guinea. The letter cited the violation of air space by four Portuguese aircraft, the dropping of grenades on the village of Bouniack on April 9, 1963, and three similar violations of territory and air space which occurred on December 16, 1961, and which were drawn to the attention of the President of the Security Council on December 22, 1961.

The fifth session of the Metal Trades Committee of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was held in Geneva from October 25 to November 5, 1954, under the chairmanship of Mr. E. C. Puig (Mexico). Representatives of 20 countries and the United Nations, as well as observers from a number of non-governmental organizations, attended the session, at which the following three agenda items were considered: 1) a general report, dealing with steps taken by various countries and the ILO Office in the light of actions of previous sessions of the Committee and recent events and developments in the metal trades; 2) regularization of production and employment at a high level in the metal trades; and 3) methods of labor-management cooperation in metal-working plants. In the matter of labor-management relations, the Committee adopted, by 91 votes to 11, a memorandum concerning practical methods of labor-management cooperation, intended as a guide to employers and workers, which outlined matters suitable for joint consultation and suggested some guiding organizational principles and methods of cooperation. In the memorandum on the regularization of production and employment, adopted by the Committee by 71 votes to 33 with 3 abstentions, the general principles set forth were that 1) the proper goals of social, political and economic policy were to achieve full employment and to ensure steady progress towards higher living standards, 2) the benefits of higher productivity in the metal trades should be distributed equally among labor, capital and consumers, 3) sharp economic crises resulting in widespread unemployment were avoidable through appropriate action, and 4) sustained full employment could be built only on a solid foundation of adequate consumer purchasing power, of steadily rising living standards, of greater economic stability, especially for the lower-income groups, and of rapid economic development of under-developed countries.

The sixteen-member Council of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), the newest of the twelve specialized agencies of the UN, held its first session in London after its membership had been completed by the Assembly. A second session of the Council was held in London during July 1959, at which the work program, administrative arrangements, and the relationship of the Organization with the other UN agencies were discussed. Among the new proposals made to the Council was one that IMCO should consider the problem of simplifying the voluminous documentation required by international shipping when entering or leaving port. Another aspect of the Council's second session was a debate on technical cooperation with underdeveloped countries, but a full report on IMCO's participation in UN technical assistance programs was not to be considered until the next Council session, scheduled for March 1960.

The 1962 annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank, held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), took place in Washington, D.C. on September 17–21, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr.Ahmed Zaki Saad, Governor for Saudi Arabia. In the annual address, Mr. Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank, summarized some of the achievements of the Bank and its affiliates in the past year. He also commented on the external economic difficulties facing the developing countries and pointed out some of the implications of these difficulties as they affected the amount and kind of aid the developing countries needed.

Two new experiments in international cooperation, seldom publicized and very little known even to the specialist in international affairs, have been taking place in recent years in the Caribbean area and in the South Pacific. In each instance, colonial nations have established international organizations, advisory in character, to foster economic and social advance. Without political functions, these two organizations — the Caribbean Commission and the South Pacific Commission — have embarked on the task of raising standards of living and advancing the general welfare of the non-self-governing peoples of the area. The first of these, the Caribbean Commission, was the progenitor of the regional system and has served in large measure as a model for the later South Pacific Commission; the story of its development, with the participation first of two and later of four colonial governments, is therefore particularly interesting to follow.

Nearly thirty-five years have gone by since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles brought into existence a new international entity, the territory under mandate or trusteeship. Histories of the peace negotiation, depending on the prejudices or the personalities of their authors, represented the system as the creation of a group of impractical idealists or as the ultimate Surrender to militant colonialism. Only recently has it proved feasible to examine much of the evidence, to discover the effects of the system on the territories themselves, and to draw a few conclusions.

The General Assembly held its eighteenth session, comprising the 1206th–1285th plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 17 to December 17, 1963, during which time it took action on 86 agenda items. Zanzibar and Kenya were admitted to membership at the 1281st plenary meeting on December 16, 1963, thereby bringing the total UN membership to 113.

Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East: The fifteenth session of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) was held in Broadbeach, Australia, from March 9 to 19, 1959, under the chairmanship of Mr. Richard G. Casey, Minister of State for External Affairs of Australia.1 During the course of the session, new offers of financial aid to the Lower Mekong river development project were made: Canada offered $1,300,000 to pay for its undertaking of an aerial survey and mapping of the Lower Mekong basin; Australia offered $225,000 for equipment and training; and France promised an additional $102,500 beyond the $126,000 previously contributed. The Soviet Union also indicated that it was prepared to extend technical assistance to the Mekong project either directly or through ECAFE for power stations.

The 30th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1112th to the 1134th meetings inclusive, was held in Geneva from July 5 to August 5, 1960. In opening the session, Mr. C. W. A. Schurmann (Netherlands), President for i960, drew attention to the meetings at the ministerial level and to the discussion of program appraisals, two innovations which were to constitute a noteworthy experiment of the current session.

The thirteenth session of the Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was held in Geneva, December 1–9, 1960.1 Ambassador Max H. Wershof, permanent representative of Canada to the European Office of the UN in Geneva, was elected chairman.